11C-sarcosine

11C-sarcosine is a novel radiotracer developed for PET imaging of prostate cancer. It is a radiolabeled version of sarcosine (N-methylglycine), where carbon-11 (11C) is incorporated into the molecule. 11C-sarcosine functions as a substrate for proton-coupled amino acid transporters (PATs) and has demonstrated superior tumor-to-background ratios compared to 11C-choline in prostate cancer imaging. The compound shows specific uptake in prostate cancer cells through PAT-mediated transport, which can be competitively inhibited by 5-hydroxy-l-tryptophan but not by 2-aminobicyclo-(2,2,1)-heptane-2-carboxylic acid. 11C-sarcosine has favorable radiation dosimetry characteristics and has shown promising results in initial human testing for localized clinically significant prostate cancer detection.

Other names

Sarcosine C-11